Chapter 239| Chapter 240| Chapter 241
Chapter 239: Receiving a Letter
Fu San deliberated for a long time before finally accompanying Luo Mingyi to the hospital. He didn’t stay long, opting instead to cast a brief, worried glance through the viewing window of the intensive care unit.
Inside, Qiu Yan’s entire body was wrapped tightly in heavy medical bandages like a mummy, and she remained completely unconscious.
Luo Mingyi watched her for a moment, shaking his head in silent dismay.
Fu San’s brow knit with deep confusion. “Why haven’t they placed her inside a high-tier regeneration capsule? An injury of this scale should easily be mended by a standard treatment pod, shouldn’t it?”
Was the Qiu family truly that cold-hearted toward her? Were they seriously unwilling to finance even a basic medical intervention? A standard recovery pod wasn’t astronomical in price; it was something practically any citizen could afford.
Luo Mingyi’s eye twitched slightly. “You don’t understand. After Qiu Yan survived the fall down the ridge, she actually regained consciousness once. But the moment she caught sight of the high-tech treatment pods, she became violently hysterical, fighting the staff tooth and nail and refusing to step inside!”
He let out a heavy, defeated sigh. “Left with absolutely no alternative, we had to resort to treating her injuries using ancient medical procedures. It has been an absolute nightmare for the resident physicians. Most traditional medical charts have been lost to history for centuries; how could modern doctors know the exact methodology? We had to aggressively scour the historical archives for days before finally piecing together this treatment plan.”
Fu San stared through the transparent glass at the heavily bound girl, momentarily speechless. “Is she genuinely going to be alright under these conditions?”
Luo Mingyi blinked, turning to fix him with a highly strange, probing look. “Are you actually worried about her? What, have you suddenly developed romantic feelings for the girl?”
“Get lost!” Fu San shoved him away impatiently. “What absolute garbage are you spewing?! I am merely terrified of how Master will react if she catches wind of this disaster! I need to verify every single detail of her status so I can report it to Master cleanly!”
“Master? Have you lost your mind?!” Luo Mingyi stood stunned for a second, before finally remembering that Fu San and Qiu Yan had indeed sworn themselves to the same martial master inside the virtual world of Ancient Times. A mocking curl touched his lips. “Your precious Master is just a programmed NPC who spends her entire existence anchored inside the game server. So long as you keep your mouth shut, she will never even think to ask about Qiu Yan!”
The moment the words left his lips, his eyes suddenly narrowed, a sharp suspicion flashing across his features. He locked his gaze onto Fu San, studying him closely. “Wait a minute, something is wrong with you, kid. She is just an NPC, yet you are display a terrifying level of attachment to her, aren’t you? You went out of your way to pull real-world medical data on Qiu Yan just to report it to a line of code… You don’t even display this much devotion toward your oldest real-world friends!”
Fu San subconsciously averted his eyes, clearing his throat. “What ridiculous nonsense! If it weren’t for Master’s high-tier medical attributes inside the server, my old man would have succumbed to his terminal debuff weeks ago! How can I not revere my own Master?!”
Even as he spat the defense, a bizarre wave of irrational guilt pooled in his chest, making him thoroughly defensive. Squaring his shoulders, he widened his eyes and aggressively locked his gaze back onto Luo Mingyi’s face to prove his innocence.
The longer Luo Mingyi studied him, the more anomalous the behavior felt, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on the exact mechanical glitch. After a brief standoff, he turned his head away, letting the matter drop. “Qiu Yan’s physical foundation is recovering remarkably well. By the doctors’ calculations, she should make a full recovery in a few months. However, she will likely suffer severe residual psychological trauma. The chief physician noted it would be best to enlist a top-tier psychiatrist to monitor her mental state.”
Fu San let out a massive, hidden sigh of relief, patting his friend’s shoulder. “That is fantastic news. I’ll leave her care in your hands. I have urgent matters to resolve on my end, so I shall take my leave first.”
With that, he practically sprinted out of the corridor. He was in such a desperate hurry to return to his terminal that he completely missed the deeply perplexed, lingering stare Luo Mingyi fixed on his back.
Neither of them realized that the exact second they wrapped up their conversation, the girl wrapped like a mummy on the other side of the transparent glass slowly fluttered her eyelashes open.
Through a hazy, pain-filled blur, her eyes tracked the turning silhouette of the giant man as he walked away.
His chiseled, sharp profile, strong sword-like brows, deep eyes, prominent nose, and perfectly formed lips resembled a flawless work of art carved by the gods themselves.
Is that… a real person? she thought groggily. Does an entity of such absolute beauty genuinely exist in the physical world…
Before she could process the thought, a sudden, blinding wave of agony ripped from her wounds, making her feel as though her entire physical vessel had been crushed beneath a mountain. As the intense fatigue reclaimed her consciousness, the girl on the hospital bed slowly re-sealed her eyes, slipping back into the dark.
Time flew past in a blur, and another full month vanished in the blink of an eye.
Inside the inner pocket dimension, Lu Yunxi raised her hand to touch her hair, only to look down and find a massive, loose clump of black strands resting flat against her palm. Her hand began to tremble violently.
Throughout this grueling period, in a desperate bid to preserve her server time, she had aggressively ground her lifestyle skills to the absolute limit, completely neglecting food, water, or sleep. The sheer physical toll she had paid to master these disciplines was astronomical!
Her precious hair!
The exact second she successfully stabilized the laws of this Immortal Cultivation server, she was going to transform into a completely detached, emotionless phantom! Absolutely no one would be permitted to stress her ever again!
Through these months of frantic, near-manic study, she had successfully verified a critical mechanical parameter: the exact second one of her lifestyle disciplines breached the Grandmaster threshold, the demanding immortal beauty would offer a slight nod of approval, indicating that she was legally cleared to abandon that specific skill.
In other words, her absolute ticket out of this dimension was to systematically force every single practical life skill on her status sheet to hit the Grandmaster tier.
Unfortunately, forcing a breakthrough at that level was an agonizingly complex process. It required her to meticulously analyze the physical forms over and over again until she triggered a sudden, spontaneous moment of system enlightenment. Mindless, repetitive grinding was merely exhausting, but fishing for that random spark of absolute comprehension was pure mental torture.
To maintain her focus against the maddening exhaustion, Lu Yunxi had utilized her master-level alchemy skills to synthesize a highly unique chemical stimulant—a fiery, chili-flavored iced drink.
Initially, she had stuck to crafting refreshing fruit blends like chilled watermelon pulp, frozen banana milk, and iced pomegranate nectar. While those concoctions provided a pleasant cooling effect, they possessed absolutely zero utility when her stamina bar hit absolute zero and her eyelids began to sag.
But the chili-flavored iced drink was a different beast entirely!
The flavor profile was a violent, paradoxical clash of sub-zero frost and blinding, capsaicin-laced heat. A single sip sent a violent shudder traveling straight down her spine, forcibly shocking her neural framework awake.
The immortal beauty possessed no physical taste receptors to sample the fluid, but after monitoring Lu Yunxi’s flushed, twitching features for several days, even her cold demeanor cracked with a trace of worry. “Capsaicin is a violent physical stimulant. While a minor dose can fortify internal circulation, overindulgence will inevitably devastate your internal organs. Furthermore, it is highly detrimental for a young woman’s constitution to consume such an excessive amount of frozen essence.”
Lu Yunxi understood the biological risks perfectly. Had she been operating within her fragile, real-world human body, subjecting herself to a relentless cocktail of hot peppers, iced chemicals, and chronic sleep deprivation would have triggered a fatal systemic collapse within a week!
But she was currently piloting a high-tier avatar inside a virtual reality world. Her digital character vessel was infinitely more resilient than her physical form, and even if she sustained localized tissue inflammation, the system would automatically execute a full-body structural repair the exact moment she formally completed her ascension.
Every single time a cultivator broke through a major tier barrier, their physical vessel underwent a profound, heavenly purge, wiping away every trace of mortal illness or cellular decay. With that hardcoded safety net waiting at the finish line, she had absolutely nothing to fear!
Ignoring the tragic reality of her shedding hair, she abandoned all caution, diving back into her studies with manic intensity.
Hard work always yielded dividends within the system. After two additional months of grueling, uninterrupted focus, the long-awaited notifications finally cascaded down her interface: every single lifestyle discipline on her sheet had officially breached the Grandmaster threshold.
The demanding immortal beauty finally let out a soft, relaxed breath, her translucent spiritual frame beginning to dissolve into shimmering particles of stardust.
Right before her form completely scattered into the wind, a melodic, giggling whisper echoed across the valley. “I shall await your arrival within the coordinates of the Upper Realm! You must maintain this absolute focus!”
The parting words were swiftly carried away by the gentle breeze.
Lu Yunxi stood rooted to the spot for a long, silent moment before turning her steps toward the center of the wooden pavilion.
Prior to her departure, the immortal beauty had noted that a hidden manual switch was embedded within the pavilion’s pillars to unseal the exit pathway, alongside a finalized legacy gift left behind specifically for her inheritor.
She conducted a swift sweep of the architecture, quickly locating the lockbox. Resting inside was an exceptionally exquisite, flowing gown.
The silk fabric was dyed a vibrant, burning shade of orange-red, anchored by a rich crimson sash at the waist. The material felt smoother than liquid glass against her fingers, radiating a level of luxury that promised absolute, unparalleled comfort. Most spectacular of all was the hemline, which was layered with the iridescent, shimmering plumage of a primordial phoenix, presenting an incredibly gorgeous visual aesthetic.
Lu Yunxi checked the item metrics. It was categorized as a Gold-tier artifact, but unlike common Gold gear which displayed flat statistical enhancements, every single numerical value on this gown was replaced by a row of crimson question marks. It was blindingly obvious that this garment represented a hidden, celestial grade far surpassing the current global database!
Meticulously folding the gown and tucking it into a secure slot within her inventory space, Lu Yunxi activated the floor mechanism and stepped into the exit corridor.
The exact millisecond her character model cleared the outer boundary of the monolithic pillar, a massive flock of carrier pigeons swarmed her position, carrying a towering, heavy stack of unread letters.
The lead pigeon glared at her with visible, AI-generated displeasure; the digital weight of the unread correspondence had clearly pushed its transport stamina to the absolute limit. Unlike standard game messages, these letters were bound inside premium, heavy parchment envelopes, preventing the system from automatically weight-reducing the package.
After being aggressively pecked on the forehead several times by the irritated birds, Lu Yunxi had no choice but to open her inventory panel, scattering a handful of premium grains across the grass to appease them before she could safely unseal the messages.
Although the stack consisted of dozens of independent letters, a quick inspection revealed they had all been drafted exclusively by her long-winded disciple, Shen San. His initial notes simply inquired about her current coordinates, expressing a desire to deliver some rare cooking ingredients he had farmed. But as the weeks bled away and the system continuously failed to route the messages through the dimensional barrier, his tone had spiraled into a frantic panic. The later pages were overflowing with anxious rants, desperately demanding to know if she had sustained lethal injuries, offering to buy out entire city apothecaries to ship her healing salves, or begging for the clearance to cook for her.
Reading through the first few pages, she let out a helpless, amused sigh.
While the underlying core of his messages was entirely identical, his written prose was incredibly circuitous and long-winded, expending thousands of words just to deliver a basic greeting. Yet, terrified that a critical piece of server information might be buried within his rants, she forced herself to patiently review the parchment sheets one by one.
Before she could even finish clearing the first stack, another wave of carrier pigeons descended from the canopy, carrying an even more massive haul of letters.
These new birds struggled to navigate the air pressure, unceremoniously dumping the heavy parchment parcels directly onto her head before flapping their wings and flying away into the clouds without looking back, completely indifferent to the premium grain scattered at her feet.
Lu Yunxi’s eye twitched violently. Unfolding the fresh letters, she discovered the correspondence originated from the senior leadership of the Desert Sect. Having realized she had failed to clear the legacy gates prior to the global shutdown, the panic-stricken elders had officially notified the Palace Master of the Misty Rain Palace and her own martial master.
The entire regional alliance had been driven entirely sick with worry!
She quickly grabbed her brush, drafting several rapid response letters to confirm her absolute safety and dispatching them into the network.
Across the continent, the high-level formation masters swarming the monolithic pillar instantly let out a collective sigh of relief, dismantling their emergency arrays to return to their respective sects.
Lu Yunxi closed her interface window, finally taking a moment to survey her immediate surroundings. Her brow furrowed tightly as she mapped the terrain.
She was currently standing in the center of a dense, vibrant forest overflowing with lush green trees—a physical impossibility within the arid, sun-baked geography of the Desert Continent!
Chapter 240: Illusion
Lu Yunxi asked around and was astonished to find that she had somehow returned to the Forest Continent!
The moment she took in the familiar green canopy stretching out around her, she felt an instant wave of relief wash over her, as refreshing as a swig of ice-cold cola on a scorching day.
“Master?!”
A familiar voice suddenly boomed behind her.
She blinked in surprise. Before she could even turn around, a pair of large hands gripped her shoulders, firmly pivoting her around.
Shen San was staring down at her, his face a picture of pure shock before it completely flooded with joy. “Master! What an absolute coincidence! I literally just finished reading your response letter, and the second I look up, here you are! Where on earth have you been hiding these past few days? I genuinely thought something terrible had happened to you!”
Lu Yunxi’s heart gave a sudden leap at his explosive entrance, and it took her a long moment to steady her breathing. “I’m perfectly fine… I merely stepped into a secluded legacy realm a few weeks ago, which blocked the system’s transmission grid. That’s why I couldn’t get word to you.”
“Thank the heavens you’re safe, Master.” Shen San let out a massive sigh of relief, his entire character model practically vibrating with a joyful aura.
Suddenly, a thought seemed to strike him. His expression froze mid-beam, and his gaze darted awkwardly toward her face.
Lu Yunxi was deeply perplexed by the abrupt shift. She raised a hand, touching her cheek. “What is it? Is there dirt on my face?”
“No, no, it’s not that… Master, do you… do you still happen to harbor any recollections regarding that specific individual?” Shen San stammered, entirely tangled up in his own thoughts.
The reality was that Luo Mingyi’s real-world warning had left him deeply conflicted. What if his master had completely pushed Qiu Yan out of her mind for the time being? If he foolishly took the initiative to blurt out the name, only for his master to plunge into deep sorrow upon learning of the girl’s horrific accident, would he not be the one to blame for ruining her mood?
After agonizing over the dilemma, he decided the cleverest strategy was to completely omit the girl’s actual name. That way, if his master’s AI naturally brought up Qiu Yan, he could smoothly explain the real-world medical coma. But if his master failed to mention her, he would simply let the topic bury itself forever.
He could aggressively pivot between attack and defense on a dime; he truly was a tactical genius!
Shen San silently gave himself a massive mental thumbs-up.
Lu Yunxi’s head was completely overflowing with question marks. “Who? What on earth are you babbling about? Why are you acting so incredibly secretive? If you have something to state, speak plainly!”
“Ah! Since it hasn’t crossed your mind, Master, let us simply drop the matter entirely.” Shen San let out a massive, audible breath of relief.
If given the choice, he honestly preferred his master never missed Qiu Yan at all!
Lu Yunxi drew a sharp breath, unable to restrain herself from rolling her eyes at his antics. But too exhausted to waste energy parsing his nonsense, she didn’t bother pressing him for answers.
Had she possessed the capacity to read his internal player monologue, she would have been utterly speechless. How could she, a hardcoded entity representing an NPC, ever take the initiative to interrogate him regarding real-world human affairs? Was she not terrified of breaking character and exposing her own awareness?!
Deciding to ignore the giant entirely, she turned on her heel and glided toward the nearby market street.
“Master, look over there! That device looks incredibly fascinating. Shall I step forward and purchase one for your household?” Shen San pointed toward a bustling stall, his eyes gleaming as though he had just unearthed a chest of legendary tier-one loot.
Following the trajectory of his finger, Lu Yunxi’s eyes widened in genuine astonishment.
No way, it can’t be!
She vividly recalled encountering that exact apparatus lining the streets during her early childhood. A local vendor would pour crystallized sugar into the center of a whirring metal drum, wielding a slender bamboo stick in one hand as the machine let out a steady, rhythmic hum. Within seconds, gossamer strands of spun sugar resembling white catkins would wrap around the wood, expanding into a massive, fluffy cloud. It was impossibly soft and pillowy, and a single bite delivered a rush of pure sweetness that melted instantly on the tongue.
But…
Though the housing of this particular device had been crudely refitted with a wooden crank mechanism, did cotton candy machines genuinely exist within the historical lore of a standard ancient dynasty?
The logical contradiction flashed through her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. At the end of the day, this was merely a virtual environment; there was absolutely no utility in overanalyzing the historical accuracy of a cosmetic asset.
The two excited players marched straight up to the vendor’s stall.
The resident merchant was exceptionally clever. He didn’t just spin basic white clouds; he had introduced pink, green, and blue dye matrices, manually sculpting the sugar into various intricate shapes. A few batches had been molded into the likenesses of miniature kittens and puppies, presenting an incredibly adorable aesthetic.
Shen San was practically vibrating with eagerness. “Am I permitted to operate the crank and manufacture one myself?”
The vendor blinked in surprise, momentarily caught off guard. “Well… it is certainly allowed, young master, but the cost remains identical to my standard retail price…”
“Think nothing of the silver!” Shen San waved his hand dismissively, casually tossing the required currency onto the counter before rolling up his sleeves to take over the device.
He skillfully bent the tip of the bamboo skewer to create an anchor point, before aggressively pouring various colorful sugar crystals into the drum. Suddenly remembering his companion, he whirled his head around to face her. “Master, what specific aesthetic do you prefer? Or would you care to take the skewer and sculpt the framework yourself?”
Lu Yunxi had spent the last several months grinding intricate handicrafts to the absolute limit inside the pillar, to the point where she felt physically nauseous at the mere sight of manual crafting meters. How could she possibly want to trigger another production queue? She waved her hand frantically. “Just manufacture whatever template pleases you. Anything is fine.”
Shen San pondered the options for a brief moment before a grand concept crystallized in his mind.
He boldly began layering the colored strands, utilizing practically every available dye matrix on the shelf until the sugar block resembled a chaotic, abstract canvas.
Watching the production process drag on, Lu Yunxi’s internal anxiety began to spike.
Isn’t that an excessive number of artificial dyes? she thought blankly. The final product looked exactly as though someone had violently overturned a painting palette. It was a terrifying vortex of stark reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, and purples. Was an anomaly of that color profile genuinely safe for human consumption?
Shen San was completely oblivious to her horrified expression. The deeper he got into the crafting cycle, the more fascinated he became, even humming a cheerful little melody under his breath as he finished the final layers.
By the time he completed the massive sugar sculpture, a considerable crowd of local consumers had swarmed the stall, drawn either by his high-tier character aesthetics or the sheer novelty of his bizarre creation.
The vendor was beaming, seizing the commercial opportunity to aggressively pitch his wares to the onlookers. “Step closer, travelers! Do not pass up this divine sweetness! You possess every right to operate the crank yourself, or I can manually fashion a custom template to match your desires! Any shape is possible…”
While the merchant shouted his pitch, Shen San proudly thrust the finalized confection into her hands. “Master, sample it quickly while the structural integrity holds.”
“What exactly is this monstrosity supposed to represent?” Lu Yunxi asked, staring skeptically at the multi-colored, jagged silhouette.
“This is an armored combat mecha,” Shen San declared, tossing his chin up with immense pride. “It is a completely custom blueprint I designed myself.”
Lu Yunxi’s face blanked into an expression of utter bewilderment. She offered a slow, perfunctory nod as if she perfectly comprehended the architectural reference, before quietly lowering her head to take a small bite.
The spun sugar was remarkably soft, melting into a rich, comforting sweetness against her tongue, and a genuine smile slowly graced her lips.
Noticing that his master hadn’t pressed him to explain what an ‘armored mecha’ was, Shen San felt a brief wave of disappointment. He had been fully prepared to unleash a massive, ten-minute lecture detailing his structural design concepts! Unfortunately, his master simply wasn’t curious.
But watching her genuine smile blossom, he quietly let out a hidden breath of relief.
“Do you recognize the topography?” Luo Mingyi asked, hands buried deep in his pockets as he gestured toward the rugged mountain peaks lining the horizon. “Our initial character spawn points were all mapped within this Forest Continent sector. These ridges are packed with dense brush and high-level terrain hazards, so you must maintain absolute vigilance whenever you explore the wild. Though, given your current attribute values, I doubt any baseline mob possesses the capacity to threaten your safety.”
Receiving no response, he turned his head back to check on his companion, only to find the girl staring blankly into space, her mind clearly lost in a deep daydream.
A spike of intense irritation flared in his chest, and his mood soured instantly.
He wasn’t some idle vagrant with hours to waste; his private schedule was overflowing with guild business! If they hadn’t braved countless high-tier dungeons together as old comrades, why on earth would he stand out here in the heat spewing basic geographical lore for her benefit?!
The dazed girl pursed her lips, her gaze locked onto a silhouette standing a short distance down the thoroughfare. “Who… who exactly is that man?” Was that not the colossal figure who had repeatedly haunted her medical dreams? Or had those visions not been hallucinations at all, and that man had genuinely visited her bedside?
Yet, looking at him now through the crowd, his physical features didn’t seem nearly as breathtaking as they had appeared within the hazy fragments of her memory… Had her mind simply exaggerated his facial aesthetics during her recovery?
In the direction she was pointing, the giant man had his head bowed, gently presenting a cloud-like, multi-colored object to a young woman. A remarkably tender, radiant smile softened his sharp, chiseled jawline, and his eyes stayed locked onto the girl without blinking once, acting as though she were the absolute center of his universe.
The girl returned his look with a bright, luminous smile, her vibrant orange-red gown making her resemble a tiny, dancing sun. She looked incredibly lively, radiant, and full of joy.
Luo Mingyi tracked the line of her finger. The moment his eyes registered the two familiar figures, a wide grin instantly broke across his face.
“Aha! Isn’t that Fu San and his prestigious Master, Miss Lu?!” Recalling the legendary, stat-boosting delicacies those two typically manufactured, his mouth subconsciously flooded with saliva.
“Fu San?” she murmured, repeating the syllables under her breath as if testing the weight of the name. A soft, clear light slowly illuminated her eyes as she chewed on the phrasing over and over again. “Fu San… Fu San…”
“Exactly, he’s your senior brother under the same lineage!” Luo Mingyi chirped, entirely blind to the profound emotional turbulence shifting beneath her features, his mind completely hijacked by fantasies of premium food buffs. “And the lady standing directly beside him is your true martial master. Come along, Qiu Yan, I’ll escort you over to offer our formal greetings!”
With that, he reached out, intending to grasp her wrist to guide her through the crowd.
But she violently wrenched her hand free, recoiling from his touch.
The mere prospect of stepping forward to confront those two strangers filled her chest with a suffocating, terrifying wave of absolute panic. She shook her head with desperate intensity. “No! Absolutely not! My memory slots have been entirely wiped; I possess zero recollection of our past interactions! I refuse to approach them!”
Luo Mingyi watched the distant pair share a bright burst of laughter before vanishing behind a massive wave of passing merchants. Realizing the thoroughfare was too congested to force the issue, he shrugged carelessly. “Alright, have it your way.”
Qiu Yan pursed her lips, her eyes tracking the exact coordinates where the two had disappeared. “Um… what specific knowledge did my master previously impart to me?”
“An absolute mountain of data,” Luo Mingyi answered, instantly perking up as he dove back into his favorite subject. “Every single legendary recipe currently stored in your active cooking menu was manually taught to you by her own hand. If you hadn’t secured her premium instruction, your profession level never would have bypassed the regional thresholds, let alone attained the coveted rank of a Grandmaster Chef!”
She silently lowered her long eyelashes, her mind desperately attempting to reconstruct the contours of Fu San’s face against the void of her memory. “So… did Fu San master the exact same disciplines as I did?”
Chapter 241: Method
“Identical curriculums? I couldn’t tell you for certain. Regardless, you both trained exclusively under her to master the culinary arts,” Luo Mingyi replied, scratching the back of his neck with a dismissive shrug.
Qiu Yan stood frozen in place, rigid as a stone statue. After a long, suffocating silence, she lowered her gaze, her eyes swirling with profound confusion. “The culinary arts? Isn’t that just… I mean… am I merely a chef? Does a cook genuinely command such an elevated status?”
“What absolute nonsense are you babbling? Within the hierarchy of the interstellar era, high-tier chefs command absolute authority!” Luo Mingyi stared at her in utter bewilderment before hastily launching into a frantic explanation of their world’s societal structure.
“…Therefore, you owe your master absolute filial piety and reverence for securing your future,” he concluded, having spent a good ten minutes detailing the interstellar famine and the prestige of grandmaster chefs. He patted her shoulder with a heavy sigh.
Qiu Yan remained entirely frozen, her mind struggling to process the sheer weight of the information.
A short distance down the thoroughfare, Lu Yunxi took another bite of her cotton candy, genuinely impressed by the texture. She nodded involuntarily, the soft sweetness melting against her palate.
However, as she glanced down to inspect the remaining section of the treat, she froze. The top layer she had just bitten into was perfectly fine, spun from pure white sugar. But the massive structural base beneath it was a horrifying, murky gradient—shifting from dark blue to bruised green, and ultimately fading into a toxic-looking pitch black. Depending on the angle of the sunlight, the abomination seemed to actively shift colors.
Even she couldn’t suppress a marveling sigh at the sheer absurdity of the creation.
But—
Regardless of how fascinating the structural dye matrix appeared, there was absolutely no way in hell she was going to consume the toxic-looking sludge resting at the bottom!
A sudden, brilliant spark of inspiration flashed through her mind. “Shen San, do you care for a bite?”
“Huh?” He blinked in surprise. After all, compared to actually consuming sugary, greasy confections, he derived infinitely more joy from the mechanical process of crafting them.
Noticing his clear lack of enthusiasm, a wicked glint danced in Lu Yunxi’s eyes.
How could I possibly let you off the hook? Since you manufactured this abomination, you must suffer the taste test alongside me!
Without a second of hesitation, she tore a massive chunk of the dark, murky fluff from the base of the stick and shoved it directly toward his mouth. Adopting the sickly-sweet, coaxing tone one might use on a stubborn kindergartener, she urged, “Come on! Open wide! Ahh! Give it a try! You designed this custom mecha yourself; how can you refuse to sample your own genius?”
Shen San’s brain short-circuited under the sudden pressure. Operating purely on subconscious reflex, he opened his mouth. The exact millisecond the suffocating, concentrated mass of artificial dye and pure sugar hit his tongue, his eyes widened in horror, and he violently clamped both hands over his mouth.
Watching his face completely scrunch up in agony—looking entirely desperate to vomit but far too embarrassed to spit the food out in public—Lu Yunxi secretly let out a massive breath of relief.
It appears the darker dye matrices taste absolutely atrocious! Thank the heavens I didn’t take a bite of the lower half!
Satisfied with her experiment, she lowered her gaze to the remaining pastel sections at the top of the stick, silently continuing to enjoy the edible portions.
Right at that exact moment, she felt a profound, heavy stare lock onto her from the crowd.
While it was perfectly normal for passing players to glance at a high-level character model, this specific gaze was incredibly intense and lingering.
Lu Yunxi snapped her head up, scanning the direction of the stare, but only managed to catch the fleeting glimpse of a distant silhouette vanishing behind a merchant’s stall.
“Huh?” Her brow furrowed tightly. Was it merely a trick of the light?
Beside her, Shen San was desperately chugging three consecutive bottles of mineral water. Only after a violent, uncontrollable coughing fit finally cleared the suffocating sweetness from his throat did the greasy sensation in his mouth begin to fade.
Following her tracking gaze, he wiped his mouth, thoroughly bewildered. “Ahem! What’s the matter? There’s no one over there!”
“I could have sworn I just saw Qiu Yan,” she murmured, her frown deepening. “Perhaps I was just seeing things?”
Logic dictated that if Qiu Yan were actively logged into the server, she would immediately rush over to pay her respects. How could her devoted disciple possibly spot her in the streets and simply walk away?!
Hearing the name, Shen San suddenly drew a sharp, terrified gasp.
If his master hadn’t explicitly brought up Qiu Yan, he was fully prepared to bury the girl’s existence entirely.
“What is it? Do you possess intelligence regarding her status?” Catching his unnatural reaction instantly, Lu Yunxi pinned him with a highly suspicious, penetrating glare.
“Ah… well…” Shrinking under his master’s razor-sharp scrutiny, Shen San realized he couldn’t maintain the lie. Taking a deep breath, he quickly, but cautiously, relayed the details of Qiu Yan’s real-world orbital accident.
Much to his profound relief, upon hearing the grim report, his master didn’t erupt into a frantic panic demanding to visit Qiu Yan in the real world. If she had demanded coordinates, he honestly wouldn’t have known how to handle the glitch.
“Master, shall I prepare you a platter of soft-boiled, runny eggs?” Shen San asked with immense enthusiasm as he tied on his apron.
Lu Yunxi shook her head immediately. “I have zero desire for runny yolks. I can manage my own breakfast.”
His shoulders slumped in immediate depression. “Master, if you have specific dietary requirements, simply issue the command. Why must you personally handle the cooking?”
“Then prepare a hard-boiled egg for me. I don’t care if you fry it, scramble it, steam it, or boil it. The yolk must be cooked entirely solid.”
He shuffled into the kitchen, his face a picture of absolute dejection.
Lu Yunxi shook her head, letting out a helpless sigh. Over the past few days, she had personally tutored him in the advanced mechanics of pasta crafting and egg scrambling, and he had been having an absolute blast experimenting with the recipes.
Now that she was actively refusing to consume his culinary experiments, he felt profoundly rejected. But his depression was irrelevant; she utterly despised consuming undercooked or raw ingredients.
She truly didn’t know if he had taken the wrong medicine recently or simply never encountered such culinary concepts in the interstellar era, but Shen San had developed a bizarre, obsessive fascination with preparing rare steaks and raw sashimi. He was literally eating raw fish every single day without ever growing tired of it.
Lu Yunxi settled into a bamboo chair in the courtyard, lazily observing the digital scenery as she turned her current dilemma over in her mind, waiting for Shen San to finish cooking.
Every single one of her lifestyle disciplines had already breached the Grandmaster threshold. Her primary cultivation level was hovering mere inches below the absolute ceiling. Unfortunately, she had completely exhausted the comprehensive training regimen listed on Elder Kao’s original manifesto. Repeating the same high-tier quests now yielded absolutely zero experience points. She was firmly bottlenecked at her current level, and the stagnation was giving her a massive headache.
What specific mechanic am I supposed to trigger to bypass this soft-cap…
While she sat lost in a daze, a digital carrier pigeon suddenly flapped its wings, diving straight through the open window of the kitchen.
She stared blankly at the window for a few seconds before a sudden, frantic shout from Shen San shattered her stupor.
“What happened?!” she yelled, jumping to her feet. Did the carrier pigeon accidentally crash directly into the boiling wok? Were system carrier pigeons technically immune to environmental damage, or could they actually be cooked?!
The horrifying mental image of a pile of boiled bird feathers floating in her lunch broke her restraint, and she sprinted straight into the kitchen.
To her absolute bewilderment, the moment she crossed the threshold, she found the carrier pigeon squatting obediently in the corner of the room, happily pecking at a bowl of premium rice. Meanwhile, Shen San stood by the counter, clutching an unsealed letter, his brow furrowed so tightly it could have crushed a mosquito.
Lu Yunxi halted her advance, pivoting smoothly on her heel to walk back out.
She possessed absolutely zero interest in invading her disciple’s private correspondence.
Unexpectedly, Shen San called out, stopping her in her tracks. “Master, Luo Mingyi just routed an urgent dispatch regarding Qiu Yan’s real-world status… Do you wish to review the contents?”
Noting the deeply conflicted, troubled look on his face, she didn’t reach out to take the parchment. Instead, she asked sharply, “What is the diagnosis? Has she sustained critical, irreversible trauma?” She isn’t going to die, is she? That’s impossible! In an advanced interstellar era, is their vaunted medical technology actually just a massive, fabricated scam?!
“It’s like this. Qiu Yan officially regained consciousness from her coma two days ago,” Shen San began, drawing a ragged breath as he carefully monitored his master’s expression. “But… she has sustained total memory wipe! She has full-blown amnesia!”
“Amnesia?!” Lu Yunxi’s eye twitched violently, repeating the diagnosis in sheer disbelief.
She had only ever encountered the ‘amnesia’ trope in cheap, melodramatic soap operas! She had never assumed she would encounter such an absurd, cliché scenario in real life!
To think the plot had actually converged on her household!
While she was genuinely surprised by the development, a wave of pity washed over her that she couldn’t simply log off into the physical world to examine the exact clinical symptoms of interstellar amnesia.
“If she is suffering from memory loss, so be it. So long as she hasn’t lost any physical limbs, it is a manageable crisis,” Lu Yunxi declared, waving her hand dismissively. “If her memory wipe erased her culinary data, simply drag her back into the server and I shall tutor her from scratch.”
Shen San nodded slowly, quickly drafting a response letter to dispatch back to Luo Mingyi.
“Master, please step out into the courtyard and wait. The grease smoke is accumulating in here. The food will be plated shortly.”
Lu Yunxi returned to her bamboo chair in the yard, seamlessly slipping back into her idle daydreaming.
Suddenly, a deeply familiar, resonant voice echoed directly across her mental link.
“Master, are you suffering from internal distress?”
She froze for a fraction of a second. It took her a moment to recognize the telepathic signature of her supreme pet, Long Aotian.
Long Aotian, why have you broken your hibernation cycle? Didn’t you explicitly state that waking prematurely drains a massive amount of your core vitality? Return to your rest immediately, she replied silently across the mental channel.
Master, I sensed severe, volatile fluctuations in your emotional state, which triggered my awakening protocol. Has a catastrophic event occurred? Normally, Lu Yunxi’s emotional baseline was incredibly stable and detached; even when she experienced minor irritation, she compartmentalized it rapidly. But over the past few days, her mounting anxiety had grown so intense that the psychic bleed-over was actively disrupting the pet’s hibernation matrix.
Lu Yunxi drew a deep, heavy breath. Long Aotian, my attributes are hovering on the absolute precipice of the Grandmaster tier. But for the past several days, regardless of whether I grind martial forms or actively hunt for high-tier quests, my experience bar refuses to move a single millimeter… I honestly have no idea what mechanical triggers are required to proceed.
A heavy silence stretched across the mental link for a long moment before Long Aotian finally transmitted a reply. Master, what specific parameters did you fulfill during your previous training phases? Could you recite the logs for me?
She was slightly taken aback by the request, but she quickly pulled Elder Kao’s original training manifesto from her inventory space, mentally reciting the completed checkpoints one by one across the link.
Long Aotian fell quiet for an extended period, analyzing the data, before finally transmitting a response. Master, the Flower King has analyzed the parameters. She states that, beyond the physical limits of your current build, there are two distinct, unmapped mechanics we can attempt to trigger to break the soft-cap.
The Flower King has awakened as well?! How are her core vitals? What specific mechanics are you referring to?! Lu Yunxi’s heart leaped with nervous excitement, her physical frame trembling slightly with anticipation.
As expected, the primordial entities possessed the deepest wisdom! She had agonizingly brainstormed for days without unearthing a single viable solution, yet the moment she consulted her pets, the Flower King instantly provided a tactical roadmap!
Long Aotian hesitated for a long, heavy moment before finally relaying the instructions. Method One: You must attempt to initiate a romantic relationship with another entity. Method Two: You must formally accept a new disciple. However, this cannot be a lifestyle disciple focused on culinary arts; you must actively tutor them in the highest tiers of martial arts and lethal combat techniques.
